How France Reshaped Europe’S Foreign Policy
...the Free West against the threat posed by the Soviet Union; and even though the US has always supported Europe militarily and financially, Europe has turned away from its former ally to form a close relationship with the Middle East. This reorientation in Western Europe’s politics began soon after World War II when France began to plan how to restore its former glory, but became increasingly obvious after the Six Day War in 1967 and after the threat of an oil embargo in 1973 following the Yom Kippur War. After 9/11, the U.S.A put pressure on some Arab countries to not support Islamist terrorist groups directly or indirectly. However the U.S.A’ s traditional allies, the Western European countries refused to support the new Middle East project and also tried to maintain its close relationships reasons for Europe’s turn away from the US to align its foreign policy with the Middle East, as will be shown, between Arab countries. There are at least seven but the most decisive reason was France’s former President Charles de Gaulle’s plan to restore his country’s former empire.
After losing its prestige in World War II along with many of its colonies, and seeing the USA rise to superpower status, French President Charles de Gaulle devised a two-point strategy in 1958 to restore France to its former glory. To make this policy work he had to exploit European anti-Semitism and raise the level of continental anti-Americanism. According to historian Bat Ye’or “De Gaulle, pursued economic and strategic long-range planning designed to unite the European and Arab countries of the Mediterranean into a single, interdependent economic bloc that would oppose America”(3). France planned to collaborate Arabs because they planned to provide Arabs industrial development, modernization and support them diplomatically in Arab-Jew conflict in return for purchasing crude oil from...
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